

How are conjugation endings (たい, た, ない) called by Japanese linguists*?

Examples: 食べた _tabeta_ 'ate', 食べない _tabenai_ 'do not eat'

According to
[Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E_\(%E5%9B%BD%E6%96%87%E6%B3%95\)),
and an electronic dictionary, it seems they are considered 助動詞 _jodōshi_.

I still wonder if they are not classified as other parts of speech (for
instance 助詞 _joshi_ ), or if they are considered
[suffixes](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%8E%A5%E5%B0%BE%E8%BE%9E) (接尾辞
_setsubiji_ ).

It would be possible that they are directly referred as 活用形 _katsuyōkei_.

*By "Japanese linguists" I mean linguists who are Japanese, working in Japan, and producing textbooks such as those studied in schools; or scientific research published in Japanese, in Japanese journals.


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conjugations linguistics
How are conjugation endings called by Japanese linguists?


You have answered your own question, but (食べ) **たい** , (食べ) **ない** , (食べ)
**た** , (食べ) **ます** and so on are almost always called 助動詞 in traditional
_国文法_ studied by
[国語学者/日本語学者](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E5%AD%A6%E8%80%85)*
and taught by Japanese middle/high school teachers. These are always called
助動詞 in monolingual dictionaries, too. Importantly, these are words on their
own, and not part of a verb's conjugation form.

(* I personally hesitate to call them 言語学者 for a reason, but I won't go into
the details about it...)

For example, 書かない consists of two words, `書か` (未然形 of 書く) + `ない` (助動詞 for
negation). 書きたい is also two words, `書き` (連用形 of 書く) + `たい` (助動詞 for desire).
書いた is `書い` (another 連用形 of 書く) + `た` (助動詞 for past tense). 書きたくなかった has all
the four words, `書き` (連用形 of 書く) + `たく` (未然形 of たい) + `なかっ` (連用形 of ない) + `た`
(終止形 of た).

This is different from what you may have learned as a JSL (Japanese-as-a-
second-language) learner, but that's how the Japanese grammar is usually
taught and discussed in Japanese.

> It would be possible that they are directly referred as 活用形 katsuyōkei.

Indeed, if you're seeing only simple examples like 歩い **た** , it may be hard
to see how it's different from "walk **ed** ". The main reason these 助動詞 are
considered independent words is that they can be combined to say complex
things.

For example, 食べさせられたくなかった means "did-not-want-to-be-made-to-eat", but it's odd
to call something like this a "form" when it can be logically split into
smaller parts. According to 国文法, this is a "simple" combination of 6 words, 5
of which are 助動詞: `食べ` + `させ` (causation) + `られ` (passive) + `たく` (desire) +
`なかっ` (negation) + `た` (past).

書きませんでした is often introduced as a "form" (negative-polite-past-form) in JSL
textbooks, but this is just for the sake of convenience. The rules governing
助動詞 are a little too tricky for a beginner, so it's faster to learn them by
rote as a form at first.

For another thing, while there are a few irregular verbs in Japanese, their
irregularity does not cross word boundaries and affect the following 助動詞. For
example, 行く is a well-known irregular verb whose "past form" is not 行いた but
行った, but you can see the た part remains た. This is another reason why 助動詞 are
considered separate. In English, the past form of _go_ is _went_ , and it's
impossible to see two words in it.

> I still wonder if they are not classified as other parts of speech (for
> instance 助詞 joshi), or if they are considered suffixes (接尾辞 setsubiji).

助動詞 are clearly different from 助詞 (particles; を, が, へ, から, etc):

  * 助詞 usually follow 体言 (nouns), whereas 助動詞 usually follow 用言 (verbs and i-adjectives).
  * 助詞 never conjugate, whereas 助動詞 can conjugate by themselves. For example, たい and ない themselves conjugate like an ordinary i-adjective (たく, たかっ, たけれ; なく, なかっ, なけれ), allowing another 助動詞 to follow it.
  * In terms of purpose, 助詞 is closer to English prepositions ( _to_ , _of_ , _at_ , etc) while 助動詞 is closer to English auxiliary verbs ( _can_ , _should_ , _must_ , etc).

A 接尾辞 (suffix) forms another single word. For example, in English, "boy **s**
" is still one word, and "bright **en** " is still one word. However, a
Japanese 助動詞 is a bit too flexible to be called a part of a word, as described
above, and that's why they are not called suffixes.

Related:

  * [Auxiliary verbs in Japanese](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/63351/5010)
  * [Why Japanese verb has so many forms?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/61902/5010)
  * [Do I have a good grasp on the basics of what the continuative form is?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/65936/5010)
  * [Does "te-form" of a verb always include て/で? Why?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/36310/5010)

( **EDIT** : Oh, I noticed [接尾辞 in Japanese
Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%8E%A5%E5%B0%BE%E8%BE%9E) does not
agree with what I explained above. So this is one way where 国文法 and 言語学
differ... Whoever wrote this seems to think even が and は are suffixes based on
some linguistic theory, but I don't think those who adhere to 国文法 would
agree.)


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answer


A conjugation ending is usually called 活用語尾, which is a morpheme (形態素)
dependent to a word, unlike independent ones like a noun and a verb. Whether
it's part of a word or attached to a word/stem can be debatable, though.

I don't think the endings can be called 活用形 (katsuyōkei), because the name
usually refers to conjugated forms (= stem + ending), and thus creates
confusion.

As for た, たい and ない, they are usually called 助詞 (when it doesn't conjugate by
itself) and 助動詞 (when it conjugates). Both are separate from conjugation
endings. I think one difference between conjugation endings and non-
conjugation endings would be that the latter can be _written_ more clearly and
consistently separate from the verb.

Here is a material provided by Bunkacho where they use 活用語尾:
<https://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/sisaku/joho/joho/kakuki/04/bukai02/02.html>

A Japanese language 101 lecture by the OUJ uses 活用語尾:
[https://v.ouj.ac.jp/view/ouj/#/navi/player?co=30117&ct=V&ca=30012](https://v.ouj.ac.jp/view/ouj/#/navi/player?co=30117&ct=V&ca=30012)
(around 25:00-30:00). It also discusses (non-traditional) analysis of verbs
like 書かない → 書k + aない where aない is a 活用語尾. This makes more sense
linguistically, but it doesn't sit well with the Japanese orthography where
"k" and "a" would seem merged into one indivisible unit as か or カ.


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